Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Raw Vegan Fat Free Eggplant Chips!

Wow, this is an easy one, and a classic, too! It gets passed around the raw food forums often and its popularity rises with each new flavor "tweak". However, I'm going to give you the basics, and you can tweak to your heart's content! I make this recipe especially for my young kids and they love it!

These are amazingly simple crunchy little snacks that will give you the crisp of a potato chip in an oil free, potato free, and totally guilt free mouthful. You need only two ingredients: eggplant and apple cider vinegar.

Slice your eggplant thinly, and I mean THIN! A couple of centimeters is good; it doesn't have to be like paper, but the thinner, the better. Lay them out on a glass pan and give them a good soak in ACV. Now, if you like, you can add other herbs and seasoning to the ACV before you pour it on. Nutritional yeast, spice blends like mexican or curry, garlic powder, chipotle powder...if you like it, add it in. But the basic recipe makes a great salt and vinegar style chip. Adding salt is definitely optional and not recommended. The ACV has a great sweet and salty flavor, but a dash of Braggs Liquid Aminos will add a little more depth.

Soak these for at least a few hours or as long as you can, and then dehydrate overnight in your dehydrator or oven on the lowest setting with the door cracked open. I put mine to dehydrate around 7 pm and turn them off around 10 in the morning, but my dehydrator doesn't have a heat dial, so you can experiment at home. The great thing about these is your can't over-dehydrate- the longer you let them go, the more Pringles-esque they become!

I've only used the larger Mediterranean eggplants, so I do not know how an Asian eggplant will fare. It might be better, or it might not work at all! If you try it that way, be sure to post your results!